György Faludy

György Faludy (September 22 1910, Budapest - September 1 2006, Budapest), sometimes anglicized as George Faludy, was a Hungarian-Jewish poet, writer and translator.

Notable works

Faludy's translations of the ballads of François Villon, and even more prominent rewritings (as he admitted several times), brought him huge popularity on their initial publication in 1934, and have been since published about forty times. He could have hardly expressed these ideas in any other way in his time. He wrote several volumes of poetry as well, some of which were published in English. – His other outstanding success was "My Happy Days in Hell" (Pokolbéli víg napjaim), an autobiographical novel first published in 1962 in English translation, which was translated to French and German as well, but did not appear in the original Hungarian until much later.

Life

Travels, vicissitudes, and the novels born from them

Faludy completed his schooling in the Fasori Evangélikus Gimnázium and studied at the Universities of Vienna, Berlin and Graz. During these times he developed radical liberalist views, which he maintained till the very last days of his life.

In 1938, he left Hungary for Paris, and then for the U.S. During World War II, he served in the American forces. He arrived back in Hungary in 1946. In April 1947 he was among a groupFact|date=February 2007 that destroyed a Budapest statue of Ottokár Prohászka, a Hungarian bishop who is respected by many but who is often considered antisemitic. [http://www.es.hu/pd/display.asp?channel=PUBLICISZTIKA0619&article=2006-0514-1347-06YOUI] He only admitted his participation forty years later.

In 1949 he was condemned with fictitious accusations and was sent to the labor camp of Recsk for three years. During this time, he lectured other prisoners in literature, history and philosophy. After his release he made his living by translation. In 1956 (after the Revolution) he escaped again to the West. He settled in London, and was the editor of a Hungarian literary journal.

It was during his stay in London that Faludy wrote the novel, which was soon translated to English, by which he is still best known outside Hungary: "My Happy Days in Hell". (It was only published in his native tongue in 1987, and since then in several further editions.) He moved to Toronto in 1967 and lived there for twenty years. He gave lectures in Canada and the U.S. and was the editor of Hungarian literary journals. In 1976, he received a Canadian citizenship and two years later was elected as an honorary doctor of the University of Toronto where he regularly taught. His poems were published in New York in 1980 (see below with the other collections).

In 1988 Faludy returned to Hungary. After the change of regime, his works, which were forbidden, confiscated, destroyed and distributed as samizdat during the Communist period, were at last published in Hungary. New collections of poems appeared in the 1990s, and several translations. In 1994 he received the most prestigious award in Hungary, the Kossuth Prize. In 2000 he published the sequel of "My Happy Days in Hell": "After My Days in Hell" in Hungarian (no data available about any English translation), about his life after the labour camp. In the years preceding his death, Faludy was considered not only as a poet, a writer and a translator but as a living legend as well in Hungary.

Renowned for his anecdotes as well as his writing, he was a celebrated wit whose life story attracted the attentions of many a foreign author. Besides the many European based authors who visited Faludy, there was the Canadian author George Jonas who penned Munich as well as the columnist and playwright Rory Winston, and Finnish author H.M. Marttila.

Relationships

Faludy's second wife, Zsuzsa Szegő, died in the 1960s. They had a son, Andrew. In 1963 Eric Johnson (1937-2004), a US ballet dancer and later a renowned poet in contemporary Latin poetry, read the novel "My Happy Days in Hell," which captivated him, and he decided to seek Faludy in Hungary. He started to learn Hungarian and found Faludy three years later in Malta. He became his secretary, translator, co-author and partner for the next 36 years. In 2002, Faludy married a 26 year old poet, Fanny Kovács. Johnson left for Kathmandu, Nepal, and died there in February 2004. Faludy published poems written jointly with his wife.

A memorial park in Toronto

By 2006, a memorial park will be built in his honor designed by the architect Scott Torrence, facing his former apartment. It was initiated by the Toronto Heritage Project to commemorate the outstanding cultural figures of the city. A bronze plaque will be placed in the park with his portrait, made by the Hungarian-born sculptor Dora de Pedery-Hunt. His poem "Michelangelo's Last Prayer", chosen by the poet, will be carved on the plaque in English and in Hungarian. [http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1127253019174&call_pageid=968867495754&col=969483191630&DPL=IvsNDS%2f7ChAX&tacodalogin=yes]

See also: [http://www.mfa.gov.hu/kulkepviselet/CA/en/en_Hirek/060619_anniversary_events.htm George Faludy Memorial Park]

Works published in English

*"My Happy Days in Hell" (1962 no ISBN; 1985, ISBN 0002174618; 2003, ISBN 9632065840)
*"City of Splintered Gods" )1966 no ISBN) translated by Flora Papastavrou
*"Erasmus of Rotterdam" (1970, ISBN 0413269906; 1971, ISBN 0812814444)
*"East and West: Selected Poems of George Faludy" (1978, ISBN 0888820259) edited by John Robert Colombo
*"George Faludy: Learn This Poem of Mine by Heart : Sixty Poems and One Speech" (1983, ISBN 0888820607) edited by John Robert Colombo
*"George Faludy: Selected Poems 1933-80" (1985, ISBN 0820308145, ISBN 0820308099) edited by Robin Skelton
*"Corpses, Brats, and Cricket Music : Hullák, kamaszok, tücsökzene : poems" (1987, ISBN 0919758290)
*"Notes From the Rainforest" (1988, ISBN 0888821042)
*"Two for Faludy" (2006, ISBN 155246718-x) edited by John Robert Colombo

External links

* [http://www.c3.hu/~eufuzetek/en/eng/14/index.php?mit=faludy György Faludy (1910 -)] , short biography and two poems from European Cultural Review
* [http://www.hunlit.hu/faludygyorgy,en György FALUDI (1910-2006)] , timeline of life and works at HunLit.hu

* Rory Winston, [http://74.54.115.114/node/241 "At Home with homelessness", October 2, 2006] , The New York Resident, 2 October 2006
* Albert Tezla, [http://www.kfki.hu/~tezla/tezlahtm/faludygy.html "Faludy György] ", "Hungarian Authors: A bibliographical Handbook", Belknap Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1970. SBN 674 42650 9
* George Jonas, [http://www.georgejonas.com/recent_writing.cfm?id=179 "The poet and the ballet dancer"] , "The National Post", 8 March 2004
* [http://hvg.hu/english/20060606faludyeng.aspx?s=24h "Interview with the poet Gyorgy Faludy: Literature will not survive the 21st century"] , hvg.hu, 6 June 2006
* Sandor Peto, [http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2006-09-02T120027Z_01_L02723355_RTRUKOC_0_US-HUNGARY-FALUDY.xml&archived=False Hungarian poet Gyorgy Faludy dies aged 96] , "Reuters", 2 September 2006
* [http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7905373 Gyorgy Faludy] , "The Economist", 14 September 2006
* [http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/02/europe/EU_GEN_Hungary_Obit_Faludy.php Hungarian poet and translator Gyorgy Faludy dies at 95] , "International Herald Tribune", September 2, 2006.
* [http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/October2006/03/c4474.html City of Toronto names public space in honour of Hungarian-Canadian poet George Faludy, October 3, 2006]

Pictures

* [http://index.hu/cikkepek/200209/belfold/faludy.jpg]
* [http://www.sulinet.hu/ikep/2004/03/faludikep1.jpg]
* [http://www.neumann-haz.hu/DIAT_icons/faludy_gyorgy.jpg]